The Spectrum of Evil
by AutumnSouls
Summary: Anna Potter will do anything to protect Dumbledore's Army from the harsh brutality of a frightening new world, even if it means ripping apart any who stand in her way. Or making deals with the devil. Evil has never cared for Anna Potter's wishes — until now. Fem!Harry.
1. Beyond Space and Time

**Note:**

Leave a review! Reviews are my greatest motivator.

* * *

 _Chapter One_

 _Beyond Space and Time_

 _V3_

"But even if You-Know-Who drops dead _right now_ , we'll still be under the threat of expulsion from Umbridge!" Seamus was moving his hands emphatically, in a way to show how deadly serious and frustrated he was. "She's the worst threat right now!"

The entirety of the D.A. had already finished, either having succeeded or simply given up in casting their Patronuses. Some had already left, but most had stayed. They were either standing or sitting, on the ground or on a chair, but they were all listening to the conversation. It was getting a little heated.

Dean shook his head. "But if _Umbridge_ was to drop dead right now, then we'd still have Voldemort. Either way, we've got trouble."

"If Umbridge was to drop dead right now, Merlin don't forbid it, then we'd still have Fudge to deal with," said Seamus.

"The whole Ministry, really," Astoria Greengrass chimed in, as her sister, Daphne, braided her hair.

"No," said Hermione, "I'm fairly certain the majority of the Ministry is uncertain as to which side they should take. That said, I have to say I'd rather have Voldemort drop dead now than Umbridge."

"Yeah, well," said Ron, "Voldemort is on a quest to kill every muggle-born there is, isn't he? Of course you'd prefer him dead first."

Hermione didn't seem to be sure whether or not Ron was backing her up or not.

Seamus scrunched up his face and sneered at Ron. "Haven't you paid attention to how Umbridge treats Firenze? Or Hagrid? You think she isn't a blood bigot as well?"

"Yeah, but mate," said George, "she isn't exactly trying to kill them, is she?"

"That you know," said Seamus, stalking toward the bookcases. "She might want to, for all you know! He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has a bit of a target on his head, doesn't he? Umbridge doesn't. He's powerful, but he's got limits. Not that Umbridge doesn't, but she's got authority, and that's just it. She's a sort of _lawful_ evil." He started pulling books out, glancing at them, and shoving them back onto the shelf.

"What are you—" Hermione started, but Seamus interrupted her.

"I'm looking for something I haven't already fucking read, okay?"

Hermione held her palms up in peace.

"She's a sort of _lawful_ evil," Seamus continued, turning back around. "He-Who-Must — ah, blast it — _Voldemort_ can't just show up at the Ministry and whisper sweet things in Fudge's ears, make the _Daily Prophet_ say all those horrible things about Dumbledore and Anna, can he?"

"He could if he took over," said Dean. "He could simply Imperius Fudge to do those things anyway."

Seamus rolled his eyes with a dramatic swing of his head. " _Yes_ , but that's not the situation now, is it?"

"It could be," someone said.

Seamus's eyes nearly bulged out of his head with his irritation. "Yes, yes, it _could_ be. _Anything_ could _be_. The point is, that as far as we know, Fudge and Umbridge are at the top of their little scheme and no one is pulling the strings. Because I think we can all agree that if You-Know-Who _was_ , that it'd be a whole lot worse. Agreed?"

There was a general murmuring of agreements.

"Right," said Seamus. "So tell me who's really more dangerous _at this moment_. Voldemort, who is in hiding and can only do so much, or Umbridge, who has the ear of Fudge and can sway half of the damn public? Who, at this very moment, is more likely to cause harm to Anna? Voldemort, who might be only in hiding for a long-term gain, but is nonetheless _in hiding_ and isn't going to be knocking on Hogsmeade's doors anytime soon — _or_ , is it going to be those impressionable morons who live in Hogsmeade, believe everything the _Daily Prophet_ says, and are more than willing to jump into that nasty mob mentality?"

Anna blinked, coming out of her thoughts. She had been staring at the wall as she sat on her couch, paying only some attention to the conversation.

"This is getting dramatic," she said to Hermione, who was sitting on the same couch as her. "Impressionable morons, nasty mob mentality. Bless them, they're sounding like Dumbledore."

Disapproving of her mockery, Hermione pursed her lips. "And what do you think?"

Anna shrugged. "Evil's evil."

"Yes," said Hermione, "but which do you think is worse?"

"Who cares?" said Anna. "It doesn't matter."

"Doesn't it?"

"There's definitely no point in debating about it. All these details, levels of severity, where you feel the need to decide which is worse, which is more evil, which is more of a threat, then it just comes to the point where both are so terrible that it doesn't matter anymore, where it's evil regardless of the degree, when either one — greater, lesser, middling — is to such a magnitude that they should all be dealt with. And preferably swiftly. Which one goes first just depends on which is easiest to get rid of."

"Now who's talking like Dumbledore?" teased Hermione.

"I'm the leader of a group called Dumbledore's Army," sand Anna, and she noticed everybody was listening to her now. "Enough of this. Voldemort, Umbridge, Fudge, whoever — they all need to be dealt with. Would dealing with one over the other first prove to be beneficial? Maybe. But you're just wasting time. Do any of you have any ideas on how to get rid of Umbridge, or are you all still just as useless?"

"We finished with the Patronuses for today," muttered Seamus.

"And yet, you still haven't actually produced one."

Seamus grimaced. Dean smirked with satisfaction.

"And you, Dean," continued Anna, "you call that a Shield Charm? The tent in Seamus's pants when he watches me when he thinks I'm not looking could break through that like it was drywall."

Seamus turned nearly purple, and Dean gave a sad little laugh.

"We can't all be as good as you, you know," said Fred teasingly.

"Yeah, not all of us practice this stuff against the real thing regularly," said George.

Anna gave a little considering tilt of her head. "I am rather incredible, aren't I?"

The twins grinned, as did a few others, and Anna did her best to do the same, but it came out weak and forced. It had been a long time since she had truly smiled... must've been before the graveyard horror... The dead eyes of Fleur Delacour flashed in her memory.

"Right," she said. "I suggest we turn Umbridge into a toad. I can do it, I'm the best at Transfiguration here." Hermione coughed. "Then we'll put her in a room with Trevor." Neville coughed too.

"That's barbaric," said Padma. "Forcing her to — well, it's far too excessive."

"Technically," began Hermione in a tone they all recognized, "toads don't breed like that. But yes, I quite agree. It'd be too much."

"Didn't you want to give her to the centaurs?" said Anna.

"Centaurs don't do that!" said Hermione.

"According to muggle mythology —"

"That's _muggle_ mythology —"

"So you admit muggles are inferior?" said Anna. "And therefore, coming from muggle parents, your opinion is also —"

Hermione smacked her across the back of her head while the group laughed. Astoria especially couldn't contain herself.

"Are you sure you all don't want to join Umbridge?" said Hermione. The effect was immediate: everyone sobered and Hermione gave herself a satisfied smile. "Good."

"We could just butcher her," suggested Anna, receiving mostly looks of horror. "Or we could kidnap her and have someone pretend to be her with Polyjuice Potion... Act just outrageously enough to get sacked, but not too much to be unbelievable... I volunteer. I'll pretend to run away and then take over as Umrbridge."

"You would have far too much fun with it," said Hermione as the others seriously pondered this idea.

"I deserve a bit of fun," said Anna.

"You get your fun every D.A. meeting."

"I do enjoy making fun of children."

"Yet, somehow," said Hermione, "you're the most childish of them all."

"Am not," said Anna.

"You two are very adorable and all," said Daphne in a bored tone, "but are we done or not?"

"No one's stopping you from leaving," said Ron, glaring at her.

"I don't want to leave if Potter's going to teach us anything else today!"

"I'm not," interrupted Anna before the two could go at it. "Let's wrap this up, you all, so Ron and Daphne here can get a room."

Daphne snorted and Ron reddened around his ears. But before either of them could say anything more, the door of the Room of Requirement opened slightly, but everybody heard it. Not wasting time to even close it, Dobby rushed over to Anna, two of his eight hats falling off in his sprint.

"Anna Potter, ma'am, she be saying — she be saying we is not to warn you, ma'am," the elf said shakily. "But — but…"

"She?" said Anna sharply, standing up. "Umbridge? What's she done? Dobby?"

The elf tugged on his ears, as distressed as he was when he tried telling her about Lucius Malfoy's plan on opening the Chamber of Secrets. "Anna Potter, ma'am…"

"Is she coming?" Anna's heart gave a hard little push at the thought of it. "Dobby, answer me, is Umbridge coming? Someone close that door!"

Dobby tried to kick himself and ended up falling to the floor in his attempt.

"Close the door?" someone said.

"Shouldn't we be leaving?!" another spoke.

When nobody moved to close it, Anna growled impatiently, pulled out her wand, and gave it a sharp swing at the door. It shut with force. A second later, there was a thud from the other side. Someone had been running to enter at the last second. She was right to not have sent everybody out; they would have been quickly caught.

Anna stood and stared at everybody, her mind whirling but coming up with nothing.

"Anna?" said Susan, visibly shaken. "What do we do?"

Anna turned on the spot and shot a ball of fire at list of all their names pinned up the wall, the DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY at the top quickly blackening and shriveling.

She couldn't think of what to do. Was there any hope of them all getting out of this? She looked around the ground below her, but could not find Dobby. He had apparently left, the little bastard.

She needed a way to get everybody out. It would be a disaster if Umbridge was to find a way through that door, and at that precise thought, there was an even heavier thud on the other side of it. An explosion of some kind. She had to decide now, she absolutely _needed_ to get herself and everybody else far, far away from here, where Umbridge could never —

The ground lurched, the room shifted, and she thought for one moment she was having another panic attack, but it couldn't be, not this quickly —

She fell when the ground disappeared, and though she was too caught up in her own nausea to notice everybody else's, somewhere deep within her whirling — _literally_ whirling — mind, she was sure everybody else was also feeling as though they had disappeared from existence, become a part of a void — and a horrifying thought hit her. What if she had just asked the Room to Vanish them all?

Then there was darkness as she collapsed on what felt like grass, and a fresh breeze swept through her black hair. She inhaled deeply. Though air within Hogwarts wasn't thick or unpleasant by any means, it certainly wasn't like this. She wasn't sure if the air outside of Hogwarts was this clean. Then her eyes adjusted to the sudden change in lighting, and she saw she was in a forest.

Though not like any forest she knew. Roots of trees sprouted from the ground and dove back into the dirt like one of those classic paintings of sea serpents; and an eerie mist had creeped in at the edge of the shadows, trapped by the ground and the nearly impenetrable treetops. Only the faintest light shone through them, allowing just enough light for her to see around her.

"Anna?" called out a voice in the distance. "Anna! Where did she go?"

Anna propped herself up on her elbows and sighed. With her wand still in her hand, she gave it a little twirl upward. Gold sparks erupted from the tip and flew up, fairly high, only stopping due to the treetops barring them passage to the sky.

"Anna?"

"Anna, is that you?"

"What the hell happened? Are we in the Forbidden Forest?"

"What if that's not her?"

Anna got up and made her way toward the voices.

As someone very familiar with the Forbidden Forest, she could safely say that this was most definitely not it. Regardless of the vibe the name gave, the Forbidden Forest didn't necessarily _feel_ forbidden. It certainly didn't feel evil, Anna thought, clutching her wand tight as she took in more of her surroundings.

After passing by a few trees, she saw them, all together next to a tree, some leaning or sitting on one of its roots sprouting from the ground. Many of them looked frightened. Something caught her attention then from the corner of her eye. She paused, blinking, and looked to the dark trees. Anna wasn't sure, but she could have sworn she had seen something move in the shadows...

"Anna!" said Hermione, catching sight of her. She had twigs in her bushy hair. "Thank goodness. What happened? Where are we? Why weren't you with us? We all appeared here fairly close together, we thought that maybe you had stayed behind —"

" _Hermione_ ," said Anna, reaching the group. "I'm fine. _We're_ fine."

"But where are we?" Hermione took a look around, as though the answer would be engraved into one of the trees. "This isn't the Forbidden Forest, is it?"

"Nah," said Fred.

"If it was," said George, "we'd know, trust us."

"Yeah," said Ron, "we'd know too. We've been in there enough."

"Not all of it," said Hermione. "Neither have you two, Fred and George."

Anna pointed her wand at the leaves above.

" _Incendio_ ," she said, and from the tip of her wand burst a fireball large enough to swallow an entire human. It shot through the treetops, leaving a circular glow from the burnt leaves, and journeyed into the night sky above, never hitting a ceiling.

"What's that mean?" said Lavender.

"It means we're definitely not still in the Room of Requirement," said Padma.

Anna dropped to her knees, placed her wand on the ground, and pushed her fingers into the dirt. It felt different from the Forbidden Forest as well. The Forbidden Forest's dirt pulsed with a certain kind of magic, not clean but not dirty, something like tap water, and this was not it. This dirt felt like poisoned water.

"Are you communicating with the forest?"

Anna looked up at Luna. "What? Of course not."

"Oh." Luna looked genuinely disappointed. "I thought you were."

Anna shook her head with dismissal and looked to Hermione.

"Hermione," she said, "do you know of any spell that'll tell us where we are?" Hermione shook her head. "Then Fred, George." The twins raised their eyebrows, looking ready to do whatever she asked. "Could either of you Apparate to Hogsmeade or something?"

Fred frowned. "We could try. But if we're really far away, and we try to Apparate that far…"

George made a grim noise of agreement. "We'll Splinch ourselves, no doubt about it."

"Damn it." Anna stood and looked around. "Nothing for it then. I asked the Room for a solution and it gave us this."

"What now?" asked Tracey Davis.

"Is this everyone?" Anna asked Hermione.

"It is," said Hermione. "I counted." She began pointing to everyone. "All four Weasleys, you, me, Luna, Dean, Seamus, the Patils, Lav and Nev, Katie, Susan, and the Greengrass sisters. All seventeen that had stayed after the lesson."

"Saving us for the last, Granger?" said Daphne with halfhearted disdain.

Knowing all this was the result of some massive problem she had likely created, and not wanting to deal with it quite yet, Anna ignored the others and looked up at the stars. There seemed to be something odd with the picture, but she couldn't figure it out.

Something was seriously wrong. She was rifling through her memory to think of any other magical forest in England — this place _was_ magical — but could not think of any. Had she ignored too much in school, or were there truly no other magical forests in the country? If so, if her guess was correct, then it was entirely possible that they had been transported to another country.

"Can't Anna send one of those Patronus messengers?"

The Black Forest in Germany, perhaps? It wasn't necessarily magical in the same sense that the Forbidden Forest was, but it did have magical creatures in it. Vampires, bowtruckles, erklings, and the like. She couldn't remember what other things lay in the Black Forest, but if this was it, she wasn't particularly worried. She doubted it would be as dangerous as the Forbidden Forest.

"— Transfigure something into an owl and send it with a letter?"

"No, no, our owls are magical and you can't create magic through Transfiguration. It's one of the five Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration!"

"What about Anna?"

"What? Stop putting her on a pedestal, she can't defy the laws of magic!"

Anna heard something just then. A branch, a tree, something wooden, creaking and groaning in a way that was not natural, as though someone, or something, was bending it deliberately.

And then there were crows.

A whole murder of them, big and black, cawing, appearing from seemingly nowhere other than simply above. The screams from the less brave of the D.A. echoed as the crows swooped down and flew right into their group.

Anna swiped her wand at them — " _Immobulus_!" — and every one of them stopped in mid-flight and fell to the ground. The D.A. stared at their immobilized forms, a few of them still shaking, many turning their heads swiftly left and right.

"What was _that_?" Ron asked, flabbergasted.

Hermione stepped closer to Anna, her wand pointing at the crows. "Why did they attack like that? Crows don't do that."

Anna felt uneasy as she looked around and the rest began talking again. Hermione was right. Crows _didn't_ do that. Maybe on their own, if one got too close to their young, but not as a whole group, suddenly, out of nowhere, for no particular reason. She suddenly wished she hadn't put off learning permanent protective enchantments.

She waved her wand in an uneven circle, letting loose her Patronus, a silvery doe. Everybody stopped talking at the sight of it, but she, Anna, spoke:

"Professor Dumbledore," she began, "I... well, I need help. _We_ need help. You see, I was in the —" She cut herself off. Informing Dumbledore of what had happened, including the fine details, it could all be very bad.

"Anna?"

She looked to Hermione. "If Umbridge is with Dumbledore now, I can't send this Patronus." She gave a swing of her wand and the Patronus vanished. "No, Professor Dumbledore won't do." She recast the Patronus and began again. "Sirius, listen, put down the dumplings and pay attention. You know that dueling club thing I started? Yeah, well, Umbridge found out about it, but that room I used? The Room of Requirement? I asked it to hide us... and, well, it sent all of us into some forest. Not the Forbidden Forest."

She hesitated, unsure if she should say in front of the others that she was fairly certain they were no longer in the country.

"Send a Patronus back, preferably telling me how the hell to figure out where I am," she finished.

Satisfied, she let the doe run off. Only it stopped some twenty feet away, turning its head left and right, apparently confused as to where to go. Anna frowned. What was it doing? It had never had this problem before. These Patronuses needed one to know where the person generally was, so did this mean Sirius wasn't at Grimmauld Place at the moment? Or even in London?

They all stood there, watching her Patronus repeat its head turning, and doing absolutely nothing else. A full minute passed. Murmuring began when the second minute came by. Anna, feeling ever more uneasy, approached her doe.

It was almost robotic, the swiveling of its head. It was as though it was stuck on a loop and when she tried to command it to move, it would not do so. And when she summoned another Patronus and repeated the message, it did the exact same thing. Stood there, looking back and forth, eerily.

A tingle shot up Anna's spine. Her Patronus had never done this before. It was as though it _couldn't_ go to Sirius.

Then she heard it again. A branch, a tree, something wooden, creaking and groaning in a way that was not natural, as though someone, or something, was bending it deliberately. And in the distance, just barely visible through the mist, something stood.

She froze, but the others, still whispering and muttering, were apparently oblivious.

The _thing_ — for she knew not what else to call it — was tall. At least nine feet. It looked like some kind of forest scarecrow, with a deer skull for a head and limbs like branches.

And the way it moved — it was so unnatural it sent shivers down her spine. It walked near the tree closest to it, keeping its sinister face staring in her direction. Anna had the terrible feeling that it was gazing straight into her soul, and that she was being judged.

When it disappeared behind the tree, it did not come back out. Hermione noticed Anna's petrified state.

"Anna?"

"We need to go," whispered Anna.

"Yes, but where? What direction do — Anna, what is it? What did you see?"

At Hermione's words, the rest of the group quieted. But Anna didn't answer her. She pointed her wand at the tree the thing had disappeared behind, and with a flash of bright light, blew it to pieces.

"Anna!" said Hermione as others gasped.

As the bits of the tree fell back to the earth, it sounded as though they were groaning, deeply, as though in pain. Yet the removal of the tree did not show her anything. That thing was simply gone.

She turned back to the group. "Listen — _listen,_ I said — we're being watched — stalked — possibly hunted." Hermione grasped her left arm tight, so Anna used her wand to point in a random direction. "I'll lead the way, but you're all to follow, got it? Stay close. Those who can perform the Shield Charm stick to the outside, those who can't on the inside."

There were a lot of mutters and questions, but they did as she asked, and Anna took the lead. Her wand remained out and ready, the Shield Charm on the tip of her mind.

As they walked, the forest around them creaked and groaned, something noticed by the whole company. It was becoming livelier. The transition reminded Anna of herself in the morning, lethargic at first, but eventually up enough to annoy Hermione and jinx annoying little kids. It was the next step that worried her though: she usually went and ate afterward. Anna quickened her pace.

"Anna?" Hermione said from next to her.

"I think this forest's going to eat us."

"What?" said Hermione incredulously.

" _Later_."

"Sorry," said Hermione. "It's just — no, you're right."

Eventually they came across not exactly what Anna had been hoping for, but something good enough. A cave. It would at least provide safety in the form of walls and only one entrance for anything malicious to enter through. Or so she hoped.

She hurried them all inside anyway. "Go on, in, in — Astoria, quit trembling and — oh, for the love of — Daphne, drag her inside, will you? Hermione, go throw some bluebell flames around, light the place up — and can you make them a warm color? Blue won't boost anyone's spirits."

Anna slashed her wand at the nearest tree and cut through half of its branches.

" _Accio_!" she said, Summoning a dozen of them. "Fred, George, take these inside and Transfigure them into some furniture." She Summoned a dozen more. "Hermione, turn these into beds."

Once they were all ushered in, Anna took one last look outside. Her heart nearly jumped into her throat. That _thing_ , unnatural in its shape and movement, was standing some few trees away, still as a statue, _staring_.

Anna almost lifted her wand to try and attack it, but she had no idea if simple fire would affect it. And even if it did, was it worth the risk of a counterattack? No, she decided, it wasn't. She'd set up a guard for when they slept — it would probably just be her — and would leave it at that.

"Anna?" came a voice from within the cave.

"Yeah," she answered, not taking her eyes off the creature. "I'm coming."

Anna glanced up again at the stars, the terrible distant celestial bodies which said something sinister of their situation. She entered the cave, which was lit with floating orange flames and already had Transfigured cushions and beds and whatnot lying around. Grabbing a chair, Anna settled down by the entrance, her wand in her hand, her mind whirling, and prepared for a long night.

And then she realized what was so off about the stars, and her stomach felt as though it had been flipped upside down.

She couldn't recognize a single constellation.


	2. The Thing in the Woods

**Note:**

So I sort of combined the last two chapters into one with a bit of editing. No need to reread it, really. But here's the updated list of who's in the Witcher world: Anna, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Luna, Fred and George, Dean, Seamus, Padma and Parvati, Lavender, Neville, Katie, Susan, Tracey, and Daphne and Astoria Greengrass. Eighteen in total.

I don't really have any plans for romance in this fic, but leave a review if you have suggestions anyway.

I've also got a Bloodborne x Witcher crossover I've written a few thousand words for too, but I've no idea if anyone would be interested in that. It would follow the Good Hunter (Evelyn), Eileen, Alfred, and Djura as they attempt to stop Micolash from using Ciri to bring Great Ones into the Witcher world.

* * *

 _Chapter Two_

 _The Thing in the Woods_

Anna tried not to sleep.

She sat near the cave entrance, wary and ready. Nothing came through, yet there remained an unsettling feeling in the pit of her stomach. They had to leave the forest behind soon, for something dark and dangerous dwelled within.

And they were intruders; already Anna had damaged a tree, already they had caught the attention of the Thing in the Woods: branches for arms, skull and antlers for a head, judgment for its eyes. Anna didn't feel she had passed its testing stare into her soul, if that was indeed what it was.

But as she let her own eyes stare into the darkness, the temptation to drift off floated to her. It had been hours now, and nothing had come for them. She hadn't even heard anything rustling outside, which was probably wrong in and of itself, but it seemed that the danger was over.

Pointing her wand at the entrance, she conjured a door of sorts, round and wooden, Transfiguring it and the rocks in the proper places to make it all fit; a few well placed Sticking Charms to keep it in place, a Hardening Charm to strengthen the door, and a Locking Spell to seal the door completely.

Anna laid herself down to sleep, and nightmares plagued her. It was usual for her by now. Green flashes, cloaked figures, screams of her mother, fire and death, swords and fangs, her mother's screams, Fleur's scream, her own screams, screams... screams... screams of her friends...

Anna bolted upright. _Screams_. People were screaming. The light had gone all out in the cave, and she couldn't make out anyone — nor could she breathe — but it was not someone choking her, as she learned raising her hands to her throat; it was a piece of wood — her wand, bent in a way it couldn't, twisting and contracting.

"Agh — _Finite_ —"

The wand was already too tightly wrapped around her slender neck, and it refused to bend back no matter how hard she pulled, and only her strength kept it from sending her over the edge into unconsciousness and then undoubtedly death...

An idea came to her then. She closed her eyes... focused... and began to shrink... Fur was sprouting all over, claws replaced her fingernails — she became a fraction of her original size and her slender neck slipped out of the wand's ever-tightening grip. Unable to bend any further, yet still trying, her wand snapped into pieces.

Taking in as much air as she could, Anna looked around. She could see nothing. The screams had stopped and were replaced with wheezes, grunts, and the sounds of people thrashing against stone. Her mind whirled in panic — she was unsure of what to do — they were _dying_ —

She grabbed the pieces of her wand and whispered, " _Lumos_!"

All the bits and chunks burst with light, nearly blinding her, and she threw them all. Scattered about, the light was able to give Anna some idea of what was happening: it hadn't been just her wand turning murderous, but everyone's.

Hermione was nearest, desperately clutching at her wand to keep it from strangling her. Anna grabbed both ends and tried pushing them apart, just as desperate... She could not lose Hermione... but Hermione's face was already turning colors... and still the wand refused to budge.

" _Reducto_!" said Anna, but it was no good; she had hardly ever practiced wandless magic before and it was unlikely to start working now. There was only one thing she could think to do: she grabbed the nearest piece of her wand, plunged it into her arm, and ripped it back out, ignoring the pain as she used her fresh blood's magic to fuel her wand's power just enough to split the middle of Hermione's wand with a Severing Charm.

Then Anna scrambled from one person to another, picking up pieces of her shattered wand and fusing them with her blood to destroy the suddenly murderous wands of the others. Each piece turned to dust every time she used one to perform a spell. And when the last bit of her wand fell apart before she could help Parvati, she called out for Hermione's wand.

One half of it was flung at her from the darkness, and she swiftly turned back to Parvati as Padma and Lavender sobbed nearby. It was all a bit of a struggle, as the original wand wasn't fully suited to her, much less a single piece of it, but in the end she was able to free Parvati too.

Anna realized what she had done, how she had removed their best tools, but it was either that or death. There simply hadn't been time to find an alternative. Even now, with everyone safe and her mind calming, she could not think of any way she could've done it better.

Still, the fact remained that no one had a wand anymore. Not a full, complete one. And if she herself had trouble with pieces, she doubted the others would be able to make use of their own split ones... And in hindsight, maybe using a broken wand to cast a spell on Hermione's neck wasn't the brightest idea, considering what Ron's broken wand had done...

Anna felt a bizarre desire to laugh at the idea of accidentally blowing Hermione's brains all over the cave.

"What the hell," said Ron, the first to speak up, " _was that_?"

"I..." Hermione began, but she trailed off, rubbing her throat.

"Woke up with your wand trying to do you in?" said Fred, looking unusually disturbed. "Yeah..."

"Wrapped right around my throat," said George, "like I'd personally offended it or something."

Anna stayed flopped down on the ground, eyes closed and refusing to think about how she had almost lost a few members. The others murmured, whispered, and talked amongst themselves, and Anna lay still, a rage kindling inside her. They were _hers_ , and something had tried to kill them all. Nevermind herself, she had a responsibility to each and every member of Dumbledore's Army, especially seeing as she had brought them all here in a way.

But even if she hadn't, she was still their leader, chosen by the D.A. themselves. And after seeing Fleur killed by Wormtail in that graveyard... She couldn't bear to see another die, not when she could've been there to save them. Few were close to her as Fleur had become, but nonetheless...

"Cut it rather close with some of us, Potter," said Daphne hoarsely, no heat in her voice. She had been one of last Anna had saved; almost too late.

"Slytherins last," said Anna, finally pushing herself up to sit. She had been unable to keep the heat from her voice. But it wasn't directed at Daphne. No, it was aimed at the subject of her suspicions. For what thing could have turned their wands against them? The answer seemed obvious. _It_ , the Thing lurking beyond the cave, that which unnerved Anna so deeply. Perhaps it was right outside. It couldn't be just a coincidence that their wands had done something so unholy with a forest-dwelling, wood-controlling creature nearby.

"Anna?" said Hermione, kneeling beside her.

Anna looked over to her, and her eyes were drawn to Hermione's neck. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, but —" Hermione cut off when Anna brushed her fingers over the bruises. "I'm fine, I'm okay — you saved me. _Again_."

"What good is saving you if I'm the one dragging you into these messes in the first place?"

Hermione shook her head. "It's —"

"Your choice, yeah," said Anna, pulling her fingers away from Hermione and getting up. "I don't even know what to do. We're wandless, lost, cornered, and I'm seriously questioning if we're still on the same planet."

"Don't be ridiculous, the Room of Requirement couldn't have placed us on a different planet."

"You saw the stars, Hermione, I know you did."

"The Southern Hemisphere has different constellations," said Hermione. "Those could just be Australia's stars, or somewhere in in South America, or —"

"What stars?" said Ron, overhearing them and scooting closer.

"The constellations aren't ours," said Anna.

Ron frowned. "What? You think we're on another planet?"

"Of course we aren't," said Hermione, making sure to keep her voice down. "It's just — just absurd. There are no planets anywhere near Earth — or even our solar system — that would allow for a forest, much less breathable air for humans."

Ron seemed to find this more unlikely than the idea that they were on another planet. "Why?"

"Because we've discovered what's around Earth, Ron — both muggles _and_ wizards. Muggles understand the science, which is why I know not every planet would allow us to breathe on it, even if it did have trees. And wizards can look at any planet or star in the galaxy — but they don't, because there's literally _billions_."

"So?"

Anna snorted at Ron's blasé attitude.

" _So_ ," said Hermione, getting irritated now, "we know there are no planets anywhere near Earth that could house a forest, so if we're on a different planet, that means it has to be considerably far away — and that's still unlikely on its own as not every planet that can house a forest can house _us_. So the chances are —"

"Small, yeah," said Ron. "I'm not saying we _are_ on another planet, but Hermione, _it's magic_."

"Space and time matter when it comes to magic!"

"Perfectly normal wizards have used Portkeys to travel to the Moon," said Ron. "Why can't something created by the Founders of Hogwarts not take us further?"

"Honestly, what's more realistic, that we're somewhere in Australia or Brazil — they _do_ have terrifying magical creatures down there — or that we're _on a different planet_?"

"Haven't you studied those constellations too, though?"

"Well, yes, but — my memory might be fuzzy — it doesn't mean —"

"Your memory's never fuzzy!"

"Yes it is!"

Anna shook her head and tuned them out.

"Are they really arguing at a time like this?" said Seamus, throwing his hands up.

"You know them," said Anna, her mind whirling. Was falling back asleep an option? Here they were cornered and defenseless. But trekking through a malevolent forest in the middle of the night? There they would be even more vulnerable, having to watch all sides for an attack.

What magic could they perform now that they were wandless? Could the seventh years even Apparate without wands? She could turn into her Animagus form, as could Hermione, but that was it. And Hermione's form was rather useless anyway. It was a shame all the others had yet to complete their transformations.

Ginny sidled up next to her. "Are you okay, Anna?"

"No."

"What should we do?"

"You tell me," said Anna, and she looked expectantly at Ginny. "No, really, you're not particularly stupid. Got any bright ideas?"

"Thanks," said Ginny dryly. "I was going to suggest using Greengrass as bait for whatever attacked us, but maybe we should just use you instead."

"Pretty sure the spriggan just wants to kill us all."

"Spriggan?"

Anna shrugged.

"That... makes sense," said Ginny.

"It doesn't make any sense."

"But —"

"I only called it that because it's made of wood and can control it." Anna looked to the cave entrance, still covered with a closed door. "I know what spriggans look like, and that wasn't it."

"And you know what this thing looks like too?"

"No," said Anna sardonically, "I'm merely taking a guess at what it might look like and naming it accordingly."

Ginny raised her eyebrows. "No need for that tone. I'm only trying to help."

"And I'm trying to think of a way to keep us alive!" Ginny's eyebrows shot further up, and Anna sighed. "I didn't mean... Sorry," she said quietly, rubbing Ginny's wrist.

Ginny stared at her for a moment, then put her hand on Anna's. "I know you're our leader and all that, and that you've got the most experience out of all of us with this sort of thing, but you can't singlehandedly keep us all alive."

"Didn't I just do that?"

"No," said Ginny, "you had help from _us_. If we hadn't resisted, most of us would have been strangled before you reached us."

"Wow, basic survival instincts."

"And anyway," said Ginny, leaning closer, "the point is that you can't be there all the time. So quit acting like the bloody Girl Who Lived I used to read about, trying to carry the whole world on her shoulders. We'll all be better off if we know what you know, just like we were better off knowing our wands were trying to kill us."

"It'll just freak them all out," said Anna, glancing at the pale and frightened faces of the rest of the D.A. members.

"Haven't you been complaining about Dumbledore doing this exact same thing all year?"

"Yeah, well, I'm starting to think I understand Dumbledore's reasons."

"And _yet_ you still resent him," said Ginny. "Don't look at me like that, you know it's true."

Before Anna could respond, however —

"A-Anna?" said Susan, her voice hoarse from what must've been terror. And when Anna turned to look she understood what had put that fear in her.

The doorknob to the entrance had begun twisting, slowly and silently, and then the door itself began to move... steadily... until at last, with Anna on her feet ready for whatever, it opened fully.

There was nothing on the other side but darkness. She couldn't even see the trees. It couldn't have opened on its own though... She had placed numerous charms on it to ensure it couldn't be even shattered without magic more powerful than hers, nevermind opened... and yet...

Anna thought she knew what was going to happen before it did.

Someone screamed, and not two seconds later panic erupted all over. Those nearest to the back wall fled first, and those next didn't wait to see what it was that had made its way into their cave.

As everybody dashed for the exit, Anna shifted back into her cat form and hopped between rushing legs like a slithering snake — but not toward outside.

Instead, as the cave emptied, she prowled into the darkest corners and waited for the forest fiend to reveal itself. She didn't have to wait long. Slowly, its branch-like arms reached out from the darkness of the back wall, its claw-like hands stiff, the fingers stretching unnervingly long. And then emerged the skull-face with its deadly antlers, turning slowly to look at her as she crouched low to the ground.

She hissed, spine arched and hackles raised. It was involuntary, as if the skull's vacant stare triggered a frantic instinct in her feline brain; or maybe it was simply her human mind stirred here, reminded of some long-forgotten but deeply-rooted terror from some ancient hollow of subconscious memory.

Suddenly it attacked, sending out branches from its arms to ensnare her. With the agility of a cat Anna leapt forward, scrambling up the wood as it writhed and sprouted — then she was in the air, feet from its bony face, claws unsheathed and sharp for all they were worth —

And then she was flying backward, soaring through the air, hissing in pain and attempting to right herself to land on her feet. She crashed into dirt, skidding and bouncing like a flat rock skipping across a lake. The thing had hit her with such force that it had thrown her out of the cave completely.

She transformed back just as she came to a stop, using the momentum to bring herself to her feet and immediately start running. There were none of the others around.

"Hermione!" she called. "Ron!"

There was no answer, and it seemed to her that the mist had become a much denser fog overnight, so that even if the others _were_ near she would still not see them... but they would hear her, surely, so her unanswered calls must have meant they were far, far away. It was for the better, she supposed...

As she ran, the fiend chased her; or rather, appeared at the edges of her vision, never moving quickly, always slow and yet still keeping up. Something inside her twisted at the idea of any of her friends being hurt or killed out here, so she kept running, kept the thing's attention on her as they, hopefully, stuck together and made their way out of this inhospitable forest.

At length, she slowed. Her whole body was aching, likely from the way that wood-spirit had tossed her like some pathetic doll. She took a moment to catch her breath, keeping an eye out for an approaching attack, and then turned back into a cat to sniff around, hoping to catch the trail of the others. Instead she caught a whiff of something metallic... Iron, it seemed...

Her heart dropped. There was the smell of blood in the air, and its source was certainly near. Around that tree closest to her, maybe... She crept along, slowly, partly due to caution but also fear of what she might find.

Feet. There, showing just past a protrusion in the tree's trunk, were somebody's two shoes, connected to legs. Anna leapt to them, unable to take the suspense any longer — she had to know — and the sight shocked her so badly she turned back to human form.

Lying on the floor, most certainly dead, was Crabbe.

It felt as though her mind had been plucked from her skull and stretched back, reeling from this bizarre new addition to her reality. Vincent Crabbe had somehow appeared in this dreadful forest, obviously dead with how his guts were hanging out of his torn stomach and how pale he was. What could've done such a pointlessly cruel thing she didn't know, nor did she understand how or why he was here.

Were there more of those fiendish things in this forest? Or had the one chasing her now killed Crabbe earlier?

She backed away and turned, only to run into another body feet away that had been hidden by an exposed root. There lay Goyle, the other of Malfoy's goons, also looking as though a wolf had torn out his insides but not bothered to actually feast. Half-expecting to find Malfoy himself dead on the ground she twisted and looked around, scanning the grass for any marks of body or blood.

Was she hallucinating? Had she been hit on the head that hard?

"Malfoy!" she called, hoping he'd show himself if he was hiding. He and his friends might've snuck into the Room of Requirement to spy on them, or had burst in at the last second, and had been transported with them to this new, cruel world. Though if he had, he wasn't around now, or he was ignoring her. It also meant there might've been others, such as the rest of the Inquisitorial Squad, or Umbridge herself. Either way, she wasn't going to stick around to make sure people like them were safe.

As she trekked through the forest she yelled out for the other members of the D.A., from dear Hermione to distant Daphne. Not one of them answered. The longer the silence went on, the harder her heart began to pump, as if it wished for someone other than her to hear it.

And for Anna, the longer the silence went on, the more she wished her heart would shut up. She was sure she was still being stalked, though she didn't know why she hadn't yet been attacked. Surely the forest fiend knew where she was and could catch up to her swiftly... Or maybe... maybe it was too busy with her friends.

" _Hermione_!" she screamed in desperation, looking around. " _Anyone_?"

Yet the silence persisted. The forest was eerily quiet, with no leaves or grass being shifted by the wind, which itself was slow and thick like the mist hanging always nearby but never quite there with her.

Anna could feel the beginnings of utter horror creeping along the edges of her mind, ready to consume her like it had so few times before. She was alone, and her friends could be getting slaughtered right now as she stood here helplessly.

Her Animagus form being nearly twice as fast as she normally was, she transformed back into a cat and began sprinting back toward the direction of the cave. Maybe she could pick up a scent there... or maybe the others had come back to it, and were now looking for her.

They were not. The cave was empty when she arrived and there were no traces of anyone. She transformed back, breathing hard — both from the run and her rising panic. God, where were they?

" _Hey_!" she screamed. "I'm here!" She picked up a few leaves off the ground and rubbed them furiously between her hands. _"_ Come — get — me — you — bundle — of — sticks — _Incendio_!"

They burst into flame, and she threw them into the biggest pile of dry leaves near her. They caught on fire quickly, and soon became a bonfire. Despite this, nothing came for her.

In despair, Anna left the area, leaving the fire to continue, though she didn't know why. Maybe it ought to burn the whole forest down.

She was glad for it, though, for the smell of it allowed her to find her way back to it each time she traveled out in hopes of finding anyone. But this was a small pleasure to the all-consuming dread of this ever-growing nightmare. After an hour or so of this, her hope might as well have been the ash with the fire.

"Anyone?" she called out weakly.

Nothing but silence greeted her.


End file.
